Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Our Crazy Pet Population



So I am again writing without any profound inspiration but I was recently challenged to give myself a psychological evaluation on my evident pathological need to collect pets. I think that my prognosis would be better if I even collected beanie babies or some other such lucrative investment but I apparently need living, breathing creatures.

Our very first pet as a married couple was Selah. I had been begging and pleading with Ed to get a puppy for several months and so that is what he got me for Christmas that year. I was so excited. Selah was a cute and mellow 5 week old lab x boarder collie. She did pee on me on the way home that evening and in retrospect I don't know how I missed the message. I clued in not long after though!! As she grew up we saw more and more bizarre behavior. We found that Separation anxiety and clueless owners = ripped up carpet and trim, jackets, blankets - potty training accidents everywhere you can imagine. Selah has been our own little piece of hell some days and yet other days we have just been thrilled to have her around. Did you know that Selah answers the phone 90% of the time in our house!?! Seriously - it is really handy. Selah has somehow managed to become the only pet that we are too attached to, to get rid of. So I quickly learned - through some trial and error -
that I crazy pet is often enough...and we have a knack for finding the crazies as evidenced by the following list:

Honey the Hamster - was a 'gift' from Eds sister. He was a crazy escape artist and we often found him on our stairs off to who knows where.

The Guppies - I gave Ed a fish tank the same Christmas that I got Selah which we filled with some guppies...who had babies...who we then felt compelled to save from their parents who were tring to eat them...

Mondego - Our ball python. Seriously the best pet we have. He is quiet and content and entertaining in a rather morbid way. We still have him but we are quickly running out of room for him!!!

Shambo - Ed named this cat after the term "being ro-sham-boed" which seemed particularly funny to him. We got Shambo to see if she would help Selah calm down a bit and went pretty well until Ed's allergies got the best of him. Shambo went to live with Mike at camp.

Bagera - This cat was cool...quite a character but again the allergies kicked in and our neighbour at the time took him.

Shasta - So this little Yorkie would have probably worked out if we had a better sense of timing. NO allergies...small animal that could be selahs friend but we really didn't have the time to train her. She lives at Nana and Papas now and is really happy there. It works out well cuz we get to see her still and her and Selah can still play but I don't have the stress of it all!!


Jacapo - This little guy just kinda popped into our lives...he is awesome though. A little lizard. Easy peasy.

Pepper - Is our newest cat. He is working out great so far and Ed insists that his allergies are so much better since being in BC so I have my fingers crossed that this will be it!

So I think what it comes down to is that it is all Selahs fault....lol
The reptiles are cool pets that we got because they are cool pets....but everything else was to keep selah company.

So I guess the moral of the story is "careful what you wish for!"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bet it was Jackie that voted for Mondego!!

A Little Estrogen in a Testosterone Family! said...

Ok seriously Katie, the moral of this story for the Stein family is "Stick to reptiles"!